Hot Air Serendipity

We were in Yangshou (which ended up to be pretty touristy) for a few days and did saw the karst landscape - which is limestone jutting out everywhere. We had a few things on our list of things to do while we were there - One of which was to overlook Yangzhou from a high peak. 

We rented bikes from our hotel and figured we’d try to stumble upon a couple of sites. I say stumble because in China the maps aren’t reliable at all. You could pick up three different maps and they all will have a completely different orientation. You’d have better luck putting on a blindfold and riding aimlessly in any direction. I’m sure that they do this in order to keep you so confused that you have no other choice but to hire a guide.

But being cheap and adventurous, we nabbed a free map (and free advice) from a bike shop and headed out in what we figured was the direction in which we wanted to go. It didn’t really matter because the intention was to get away from West Street, so we followed a street sign that pointed in the general direction of somewhere called Li Pu.

That path took us along a river, by a big banyan tree and through a few villages. Believe me… it was ideal. Warm weather, clear green river, Chinese women singing crackled songs through old megaphones on floating bamboo rafts, sunset was just a couple of hours away… You really couldn’t ask for a more picturesque day. But we had no idea what was just around the bend. Chinese guys setting up a hot air balloon. Sweartagawd.

After minimal (okay, actually there was zero) negotiation, we found ourselves rising far higher than any limestone peak – so far above the karst landscape – that we were able to see Yangshou in a way could have never anticipated. Bursts of fire filled our balloon with air. We rose to a place where the breeze was quiet and calming. The last rays of sun shot through the peaks. Women rode their children home on bikes. And smoldering fires spilled light across rice fields.

This is why I love to travel - there is nothing better than serendipity.